HOUSE BILL 716

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Eric A. Youngberg

AN ACT

RELATING TO TAXATION; PROVIDING FOR THE SUSPENSION OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS RELAY SERVICE SURCHARGE FOR PERIODS WHEN THE BALANCE OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS FUND EXCEEDS A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 63-9F-11 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 54, Section 11, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9F-11. IMPOSITION OF SURCHARGE.--

          A. Except as provided in Subsection F of this section, a telecommunications relay service surcharge of thirty-three hundredths percent is imposed on the gross amount paid by customers for:

                (1) intrastate telephone services, other than mobile telecommunications services, provided in this state; and

                (2) intrastate mobile telecommunications services that originate and terminate in the same state, regardless of where the mobile telecommunications services originate, terminate or pass through, provided by home service providers to customers whose place of primary use is in New Mexico.

          B. The telecommunications relay service surcharge shall be included on the monthly bill of each customer of a local exchange company or other telecommunications company providing intrastate telephone services or intrastate mobile telecommunications services and paid at the time of payment of the monthly bill. Receipts from selling a service to any other telecommunications company or provider for resale shall not be subject to the surcharge. The customer shall be liable for the payment of this surcharge to the local exchange company or other telecommunications company providing intrastate telephone services to the customer. For the purposes of [Subsections A and B] Subsection A of this section and this subsection, "home service provider", "mobile telecommunications services" and "place of primary use" have the meanings given in the federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act.

          C. A telecommunications company providing intrastate telephone services shall be responsible for assessing, collecting and remitting the telecommunications relay service surcharge to the taxation and revenue department. The amount of the telecommunications relay service surcharge collected by a telecommunications company shall be remitted monthly to the taxation and revenue department, on or before the twenty-fifth of the month following collection, which shall administer and enforce the collection of the surcharge pursuant to the provisions of the Tax Administration Act.

          D. The taxation and revenue department shall remit to the telecommunications access fund the amount of the telecommunications relay service surcharge collected less any amount deducted pursuant to the provisions of Subsection E of this section. Transfer of the net receipts from the surcharge to the telecommunications access fund shall be made within the month following the month in which the surcharge is collected.

          E. The taxation and revenue department may deduct an amount not to exceed three percent of the telecommunications relay service surcharge collected as a charge for the administrative costs of collection, which amount shall be remitted to the state treasurer for deposit in the general fund each month.

          F. No later than August 1 of each year, the commission shall report to the taxation and revenue department the appropriations made from the telecommunications access fund for expenditure in the current fiscal year as well as other expected expenditures from the fund during that year. In the event that the balance of the telecommunications access fund, on July 1 of that fiscal year, exceeds one hundred twenty-five percent of the amount reported by the commission, the telecommunications relay service surcharge shall be suspended and not imposed for the succeeding calendar year. The taxation and revenue department shall notify taxpayers of any change in the rate of the surcharge imposed by this section.

          [F.] G. The commission shall report to the revenue stabilization and tax policy committee annually by September 30 the following information with respect to the prior fiscal year:

                (1) the amount and source of revenue received by the telecommunications access fund;

                (2) the amount and category of expenditures from the fund; and

                (3) the balance of the fund on that June 30."

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